Ever since the numeric codification of streets and buildings received general acceptance, an individuals' name and their household postal addresses have been linked. The sender of a letter or package would deliver a letter or package to the post with the correct recipient postal address, and the post would deliver the letter or package to the numeric street address of the recipient of the letter or package. A correct recipient postal address for the delivery of the letter or package to the recipient included: the name of the recipient; the street address of the recipient; the city and state of the recipient; and (more recently) the ZIP code of the recipient. Thus, the correct recipient postal address is usually the actual location of the recipient.
Typically, it takes the United States Postal Service (USPS) one to three days to deliver first class mail to a domestic recipient. If bill payments, certain business orders, and requests for business information are not received promptly by the business receiving the payments, soliciting the orders or having to provide the information, an increased amount of time will result before the money is received, and/or the order is fulfilled and/or the information is provided to the requestor. The foregoing may result in business losing interest income, having money float problems and/or losing possible business.
Many businesses have multiple geographic locations that receive their mail. If a California customer requests information from the New York office of the business or a New York bill payer sends their payment to the business California office the actual time it takes the business to receive the mail would be increased.